​ 4-mile ice jam causes flooding near Plymouth State University

The ice rink parking lot at Plymouth State University looked more like a pond than a parking lot after an ice jam on the Pemigewasset River caused flooding in the area.

A thin coating of ice formed over the water in the parking lot — which was still full of water even 12 hours after the flooding began.

Students at Plymouth State University told News 9 they received an alert around 8:30 a.m. telling them to move their cars from the parking lot behind the ice rink.

About 50 cars did not get moved, and officials said some are submerged up to their windows.

Freshman Savannah Sandell was home in Connecticut when her friends called her to warn her that they had to move her car.

“He told me to move my car, but I was like, ‘I don’t have any keys there,'” Sandell said.

Her black Jeep was one of the cars stranded in several feet of water.

A towing company that surveyed the situation was able to get some of the cars out Sunday morning, but water came in so quickly that they had to leave.

“I just got back, and it kind of sucks.” Sandell said. “…I’m just going to leave it and let them tow it,” Sandell said.

Any hope of getting cars out Sunday night was dashed as the water did not recede and turned to ice in freezing temperatures.

Some students were evacuated from their apartments in Plymouth and Holderness.

“Look out my window and it’s creeping up and there’s cars underwater, so we were told to get all our stuff out in a couple hours,” student Dave Minich said.

“I’ve heard of this happening in the past, but I’ve never seen anything like this. This is pretty outrageous. This is insane,” Minich said.

The university released a statement Sunday evening regarding damaged cars, stating, “Students whose cars were damaged should file through their personal auto insurance, not the university. It is stated in the parking contracts students sign that this is the procedure for situations like this.”